The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

TO
A CITY OF MANY NAMES. 291
CHAPTEE XXI.
KIOTO AND LAKE BIWA.
tell all that ^vas done and seen by our young friends during their stay
in Kioto would he to tell a great deal. They had their time fully oc-
cupied from their arrival to their departure, and they regretted much the
necessity of leaving when they did. At the Doctor's suggestion, they at-
tempted a new system of relating their adventures to their friends at
home, and were so well pleased at the result that they determined to try
it again. The new scheme was the preparation of a letter in which both
had equal shares, Frank undertaking to write one half of it and Fred the
other. Tiiey succeeded so well that when they read over their production
to Doctor Bronson before sending it away, he was \mable to say which
was Fred's portion and which was Frank's. We will reproduce the letter
and leave our readers to judge how well they performed their self-imposed
dut}'. At the Doctor's suggestion, each of the boys wrote as though
speaking for liimself, and consequently the letter had a good deal of " I "
in it.
•' Mr Dear Friends :
" "We have seen so many tilings since we came here that I don't exactly
know where to begin in telling the stor^' of our sight-seeing. The
names by which this city is known are so numerous that the reader of
Japanese history of different dates is liable to be puzzled. Many of the
natives speak of it as Miako, or the Capital ; others have called it, and still
call it, Saikio, or the Central City, and others know it only as Kioto, or
the "Western Capital. This last name has become the official one since the
removal of the Mikado to Yeddo, which then became Tokio, or the East-
ern Capital. But, by whatever name we know it, the city is a most de-
lightful one, and tlie traveller who comes to Japan without seeing it is
like one who goes to New York without visiting Central Park, or a
stranger in Boston who does not see the famous Common. In many of
its features Kioto is superior to Tokio, and any one of its inhabitants will